No, Mr Thorn,

My current economics teacher reminds me a bit of Bond villains. She has a thick Russian accent and at times seems cruel and unusual in her grading. I wanted to adapt the idea of a professor who is a bond villain into my comic. I quickly realized Bond and Thorn are similar and remembered the famous line. I watched the scene on Youtube and decide I had to have the professor walking upstairs at some point so the direction of action was pretty much set for me.

Let the annual ***bucket competition commence

Something seems off about this comic doesn't it? Thats because this one was censored. The titular character is a rather juvenile boy and I thought a competition in which the goal would be to fill a bucket with male ejaculate would be one he would participate in. The first panel remained unchanged. The team names were originally Team Red Balls and Team Minutemen. The name of the competition was originally Annual Cumbucket Competition and those streams were originally just little squirts. The managing editor and editor of the Daily Texan asked me to tone it down so it was brought down. Unlike the last comic, I felt this one was affected by the changes made. The joke was in part a play on the word cumbucket. The word cumbucket is used to describe slut and not to be taken literally. That part of the joke was completely lost at the time of change.

My Censored and Uncensored Comic

Ok, so I live in an area where Greenpeace members recruit rather strongly and often. The morning I drew this comic, I was harassed by a Greenpeace member once more. I told her, "you know, I've talked to you Greenpeace people like 20 times." "Oh, so you're a member then!" This pissed me off. Not sure why. It may be a combination of many things. Though they are individually nice people who do care about the environment, they have asked me with too much gusto pretending to care about my day too many times. "No," I told the girl. "Why not?" she replied with too much enthusiasm. I shook my head at her for a few seconds. "Just leave me alone." She was nice enough to stop. These nice assholes have made me hate the environment. So I decided to take my sometimes passive aggressive nature and apply it in my comics platform to make what I considered one of my best comics. That is the pure unedited version of what I came up with


Satirical of vengeance movies and adopting a different, gritty style, I produced everything I could have wanted. Carolynn, my editor, is extremely supportive of me so when I asked for extra space, she was nice enough to give it to me. The space allowed me for more cautious pacing with a build up of three panels and even allowed me to split the joke into two panels. The second to last panel reveals the satirical spirit of the comic while setting up a bombastic last line. I did not think that last line was all that strong. The gun and gear were obviously for paintballing purposes and the line is a play on one Greenpeace's questions to draw you in. The fire only added more ridiculousness. Sure, it was violent, but Psychobevo (another comic printed in the Daily Texan) was just as violent sometimes if not more. Carolynn likes it and will put it on the page. Things were fine.

Some hours later, Carolynn calls me to tell me theres some trouble with the comic and asks me to come by the office. As it turned out, the managing editor thought the comic was too strong. Some of the language was too much for him and I found his request to change some of the language, particularly the last line, to be reasonable. I had not remembered the topic of someone snapping and gearing up to be a touchy subject given the somewhat recent Virginia Tech incident. I changed the last line to "Have you ever been paintballin, bitch?" Still snappy and more clear of John's intent, the line had the same impact as before without being as so malicious towards Greenpeace. The comic was censored/edited, but I did not feel it had been neutered. However, the next comic would be a bit different.

Here is the censored version

There Was an Incident

I started becoming more vulgar with this comic leading to other thing the next day or two. I always felt motherfucker was a weird insult. Anyone who is a dad is technically one so whats so bad? I used that idea here with the maturity of a 12 year old. The second panel is based on a funny little scene in a trailer I saw for Italian Spider-Man.

Unofficial dorms

Homework and deadlines sometimes leads to unimaginative comics without buildup or punchlines!

Food Bricks

The first panel is one of my favorite panels. Its a bit like my family's kitchen back at home. Had fun coming up with the whole thing. Especially the "sleep with the cook" apron and "cookin 4 fools" book.

Drunken Friends

Let's just say I have some friends who can't hold their liquor very well. Especially at my place >:|

Goddamn Chair

A Far Side type structure, this is loosely based on my Economics Statistics class.

Homework Thief!

Not a very good idea but very well drawn. Really clean. I may not always be funny but I like to think I make up for it with my art.

The Bus is Weird Sometimes

One of the best drawn comics I've done. My art style leads to few strong blacks in the pages but the setting allowed me to strike a good balance here. Very happy with how this one turned out. It seems that the most used story structure is the flashbacks. It allows me to do a quick set up and develop the punchline although there really isn't a punchline here. Just weirdness.

Most Wonderful Time...

Seems like I would alternate from good and bad comics during this time. I originally liked the idea behind it but my execution of it is lacking. Also, John looks a bit weird. Maybe I was still getting back into the groove of drawing John Thorn comics.

*Sigh*

One of the good comics to come out of the extra space allowed, it ties in several girls I've dated into one comic. I may be the only one who feels like this, but I feel this might be the only comic I've produced with some heart in it. John and the girl are not connecting on any level. Instead of enjoying a date, they are both in their own world of self pity. This was also another comic I was pretty happy about the art. It looks more detailed and has a good amount of background with a decent understanding of perspective. The last line is actually something a girl I dated told me once. I used as the punchline.

Summer Time

I seem to use the two panel structure pretty often. I like it since it gives me room for more art. At the beginning of the summer semester, I was asked to turn in a comic each day to cover for the space lost due to try out time on the comics page. Inconsistent comics would mark my series since I had less time than before to draw and I had no real plan on what I was going to do. This is one of those boring comics that came out of it.

The Summer School Misadventures of John Thorn

Maybe my most wordy comic. Bridges what happened at the end of last semester into where John finds himself now nicely. Sets up the second volume, The Summer School Misadventures of John Thorn.

Goodbye, John

Wanted something out of nowhere for my last comic of volume one. You just don't see this sort of thing in most comic strips. Liked it a lot. I will revisit what happens here during the first week of the fall semester in what will be the third volume of John Thorn. I promise it'll be just as weird.

Bad Mojo

During finals week, I had little time to work on the strip so I did whatever came to mind.

You Shall Be Judged

Had a hard prof? Yeah? So did I

Towards the end of the semester, there are always jerks who want your notes from throughout the semester since they never attended class. I wanted to seem like crack addicts.

Beautiful Stranger

Wanted to experiment a bit with the style of the comic. Decided a dream would allow me to do it without harming the artistic continuity of the comic and let me draw John as a superhero. I'm a big fan of comics and superhero comics in particular so this was a joy to draw. I wasn't interested in actually making the girl look like Biel. Pretty was good enough for me. I've got a deadline you know. The alarm clock wasn't in the initial version but some people I showed the prepublished version did not get the beep beep beep along the panel border to be an alarm so I changed it so there was an alarm there.

Parental Alert

Particularly proud of the way this is drawn. My editor allowed me more space so I got expand and get more room. Starting to get very happy with the art of the comic. More consistent and crisp now. This sort of thing happens when my parents decide to visit me. They live 20 minutes away and when they call to let me know they'll be visiting, I scramble to make everything look nice.

Plan B

Wanna get out of a test? Vomit in front of the teacher.

Old and Boring

Who is scared of fathering a baby and becoming boring? I am! Did lettering by computer and didnt like the end result. I stuck to hand lettering from then on. Actually, the original drawing has handlettering, but it wasn't published like that since I messed with the lettering on the computer after scanning

Not Really

Sometimes, I find myself doing nothing on a Friday or Saturday night making me feel like I have no friends. Hiring a hooker so I can have someone to hang out with was an idea I just came up with and integrated it into the series.

Bad Memes, Bad Comics

I think Carolynn, my editor, bitched at me for this one. You can tell I was low on those creative juices.

We Do Not Reveal Our Ways

Really like this one. Being a former engineering student, I wanted to make fun of engineers at one point. I waited until I got the right idea on how to work it and I think it came out great.

Look at this belly!

Don't like this one too much. Hardly inspired but it is a common experience.

Spring Break

I swear its not based on a personal experience!

Brains!

One of my favorite ones as well. The monster is some unconcious mix of the monster from Watchmen, the aliens from the Simpsons, and another Daily Texan artist claims this comic was influenced by her which is possible.

A Gentleman's Wager

Some of the professors are rather eccentric and their choice of dress reflects it. Always wanted to get a pool going with other students to bet on what the professor would wear.

Addiction

Gotta hate those late study nights

Happens to all of us. Back in high school, for off school campus, some friends and I would alternate going to each other's houses for lunch. One of my friends had some pizza rolls that would almost always make us extremely sleepy. Not a good thing considering I had tech theater after lunch.

Failure

Once again, I toy with John knowing he is in a comic.

Sometimes...

There's a big "keep Austin weird" push here and I just wanted to make fun of it a bit after hearing other cities try the same thing.

Single Awareness Day

Showcases John Thorn's awkward way with the ladies. Printed around Valentine's Day.

Wise Fools

Really just a dig at those arm chair economists who think they know it all.

So I was like f***

Decided to go a bit meta. One of my personal favorites even though the art style and level of detail were still being worked out

Lazy Day

The second John Thorn and the first one printed. Apathy rules the lives of the common college student. The funniest part about this is that I can't draw rectangles.

*Squish*

The very first John Thorn comic I drew, but the second one printed. This kicks off the first volume of John Thorn named John Thorn Experiences College.